DEPUTY PRINCIPAL - TEACHING & LEARNING REPORT 

It was wonderful to be able to celebrate Year 12 Graduation last Friday. Congratulations to all of our Year 12 students for their achievements throughout their years of schooling. We wish you all the best for your future endeavours.

Even though the exams for VCE students have concluded, the rhythm of school life continues. This time of the year is always a busy time as we prepare for the next year. Our senior students entering Year 11 and 12 in 2022 have recently had interviews with staff to finalise their subject choices for next year. I always enjoy these conversations as I get to find out more about the unique pathways our students wish to pursue once they finish secondary school. Thank you to our amazing Pathways Team for organising these interviews. Thank you also to our parents and guardians who attended the interviews with their child and supported the subject selection process. I hope parents and guardians found the conversations beneficial as we talked about their child’s goals and plans for the future.

Year 9 and 10 students have completed the subject selection process for next year and it is an exciting time for these students as they get to explore new studies through our broad elective program.

Congratulations to our Year 11 students for completing their exams. Year 11 students entering VCE/VCAL next year have spent this week in orientation classes for their 2022 subjects. Thank you to the staff who prepared these classes and have ensured our students will enter next year well prepared for an exciting year of learning.

The end of the school year is fast approaching and I encourage our students to maintain focus until the end of the term. Recently I came across an article written by Steve Francis and the following quote resonated with me, ‘It is important to finish strong, just like we started the year! While our reserves may be running low, it is vital to remain focused and finish the year well.’ I wish everyone all the best as Term 4 and the 2021 school year comes to an end.

Happy World Children’s Day! Saturday 20 November

On World Children’s Day we extend a huge thank you to our amazing teachers who each day are making a difference in the lives of all the young people who attend our wonderful school.

World Children’s Day is a reminder that every child needs to be safe, respected, valued and understood. For further information on the day, please click here.

Student Voice – 2021 Learning Survey

I recently sent our students a survey to reflect on their learning throughout the year. I am incredibly impressed at the reflections the students provided about their achievements throughout the year and how they overcame any challenges in their learning. I have included below some of the responses from the survey questions.

Explain the highlight of your learning in 2021.

• The fun games to help me learn
• Making new friends
• Year 7 camp
• I enjoyed Science, it was fun
• Cooking different foods in Around the World
• The school production of Little Shop of Horrors
• Still being able to speak to friends and do online learning around my family and animals
• Being able to go back to school and finish off the year
• The highlight of my learning in 2021 would be doing poetry in English, making an embroidery design and curious creature stuffy in Textiles.

What were you most proud of this year in your learning?

• Trying new things
• Improving in Maths
• My work in PE
• Doing all VET Sport and Recreation modules early and on time
• Woodwork and how to use a saw
• Learning new things in Maths
• Keeping faith in myself during online learning and still achieving my best
• My work going into the Big Fish art exhibition
• I was most proud of getting really good scores in Maths and trying my best to get the most achievable results possible.

Explain how you have grown as a learner throughout the year.

• By stepping out of my comfort zone, even if it was only a little bit
• I have changed the way I learn and study
• I have learnt from my mistakes
• I have become more responsible
• I have learnt to better manage my time
• I have learnt how to be more independent due to online learning
• I have grown as a learner by adapting to the learning environment and learning new skills.

What is your favourite subject and why?

• Food Tech because I like cooking and I get to eat
• Health or Humanities as I learnt a lot of new things, and the teachers this year were great 
• Maths because I'm good at it and it is easy
• PE because I like sport
• Visual Communication Design, as you can be as creative as possible
• Food Tech, Textiles and Maths. I have started improving in Maths and for Textiles I love being creative. I also love cooking.
• Visual Communication Design as it was an enjoyable subject and something I enjoyed doing. The end product makes you feel so good.
• My favourite subject is Science, because it provides me with knowledge, and I can do Science experiments and find the logic behind them.
• Health and Human Development because the topics we learnt were fun and interesting to me.

Explain how you overcame any challenges in your learning.

• Writing notes down
• Paying more attention
• I asked my teachers for support
• Asked my homeroom teacher for help
• I just took my time on work that was hard
• Focused more
• Trying and trying again
• Take a break every so often and then put my mind back to the work
• I overcame challenges throughout the year by having my parents and friends as a support
• I overcame the challenges in my learning by working and doing extra practice at home, and asking teachers to help when I'm struggling
• I overcame challenges by looking at the positives rather than the negatives